A ring-spinning apparatus for the spinning of roving or the like into yarn generally comprises a ring-spinning machine having a multiplicity of spinning stations along each side of the machine, each station having a spindle for receiving a bobbin upon which a yarn can be received The rovings can be fed from the respective roving bobbins or spools through drafting rollers and each spinning station can be further provided with a traveller about which the strand is looped.
For bobbin replacement, i.e. for the replacement of an empty bobbin core by a full roving bobbin or spool, a service carriage can be provided which can be automated so that, when it is lined up or juxtaposed with a respective station, bobbin replacement can be effected, e.g. automatically, and the spinning operation can be continued.
Generally speaking such a machine will also comprise a suction device which can draw dust, lint and yarn, thread and roving scraps from the active part of the spinning stations to a waste-collection receptacle which can be located, for example, at an end of the machine. The suction means can include a filter belt which can be displaced past the stations, means for drawing the lint and roving scraps against this belt and to means for sucking the waste from the belt to the waste-collection receptacle. Alternatively, suction heads can be spaced along the machine at the various stations to pick up the lint and roving scraps.
It is also known to provide the service cart as or with a cleaning unit, i.e. a suction source for drawing the lint and roving scraps generated upon spool replacement into a waste-collection receptacle on the service carriage. The service carriage can be provided with other servicing facilities as well, for example, thread or yarn inserters, thread-tying mechanisms, or thread positioners, or the like for facilitating restoration of operation of a particular station or correction of a yarn or thread break at such a station.
The carriage can be displaceable upon a guide rail above the ring-spinning machine or set into or onto the floor of the mill laterally of the spinning machine and extending therealong.
In German open application DE-OS 30 47 945, a travelling cleaning unit can be provided above the spinning machine and has a filter box for collecting the lint, dust or roving scraps which are picked up by suction.
The filter box is generally emptied at the waste-disposal station at the end of the machine into an easily replaceable dust-collection sack in which a slight subatmospheric pressure is generated by connection to the suction unit intrinsic to the spinning machine.
In German open application DE-OS 15 10 721, the spinning machine is provided with a traveling-cleaning unit having an L-shaped cross section. A vertical blowpipe has a multiplicity of blowing nozzles. In the horizontal machine housing there is provided an upwardly directed suction opening which is covered by a filter element. The filter element is connected to a cleaning device disposed at the end of the spinning machine and communicating with the central suction unit of the ring-spinning machine which removes lint and the like from the filter element. The suction opening of this cleaning unit is generally closed off and is open only upon the arrival of the travelling-cleaning unit.
German patent document DE-PS 14 54 589 describes a travelling-cleaning unit for a textile machine which has a blower arrangement, suction and blowing pipes and a filter box for collecting the dust or lint which has been sucked up. The suction or blast flow of this unit can be deflected via a plurality of flaps which can blow clear and clean the filter when the travelling-cleaning unit is in a waste-disposal station at the end of the machine.
German open application DE-37 33 550 discloses a travelling cleaner of the aforedescribed general type whose filter chamber can be closed by a pneumatically actuatable flat slider. By means of an opening cylinder, this flat slider can be actuated together with a slider for the waste-disposal unit to connect the filter chamber of the travelling-cleaning unit to the waste-disposal unit.
German open document DE-OS 14 54 586 describes a travelling cleaner whose filter chamber empties into a separate waste-disposal unit nearby the spinning machine The emptying is effected either by blowing out the filter chamber by a blower located in the travelling-cleaning unit or by sucking off the residue collected in the filter unit. For this purpose the waste-disposal unit can be equipped with a suction blower.
In German patent document DE 34 00 841, the fibrous lint which is not picked up by the suction unit built into the textile machine and developing during operation thereof is removed by a cleaning unit which is displaceable along a support and guide rail arranged on the floor of the factory and extending in a U shape around the spinning machine. The cleaning unit travels in a path determined by the cleaning cycle first along one longitudinal side of the machine, then around an end thereof and along the opposite side of the machine.
The cleaning unit of the textile machine draws the lint-laden air through suction elements into a filter chamber. The lint is separated by a filter in the filter chamber from the air. To empty the filter chamber, the emptying opening is provided and a blast of air is generated through the filter in counterflow to the flow which drew the lint onto the filter. The collected lint is blown off the filter and the counterflowing air cleans the latter.
To generate this reverse flow of air, a complex flap and slider system is required. To empty the filter chamber, a first flap is opened to connect the suction side of the blower with the ambient air so that ambient air is drawn into the system.
The suction line running to the filter chamber is closed by a further flap which interrupts the suction of air from the filter chamber. A third slider opens a connection between the pressure side of the blower and the filter chamber. This type of slider and flap in mutual operation and the systems utilizing same are expensive to construct, maintain and operate.
As a consequence, there have previously been efforts to simplify such systems.
In German open application DE 33 40 672, a cleaning device is described which has a shiftable waste-collection receptacle which, by its shifting, is selectively connectable to the suction or pressure side of a blower. The extended waste-collection receptacle, connected to the suction side of the blower, can then be emptied via a bottom flap.
The Swiss patent 601 520 describes a service carriage for a spinning machine which has, apart from the thread-break monitoring and retying devices, also a cleaning unit. This cleaning unit has suction and blowing nozzles and collects the lint in a filter chamber mounted on the service carriage This filter chamber is equipped at its front side with an emptying flap.
It should also be noted that at a station at the end of the ring-spinning machine, the spinning machine can be provided with a special lint-collection device which has a suction nozzle on each side of the machine and which, upon the approach of the service carriage, presses the emptying flaps inwardly. The filter chamber of the service carriage can thus be cleaned out by means of a strong suction blower.
The drawback of this system is the disposition of the lint-collection device in the region of the service carriage path. Furthermore this device requires an additional lint-collection unit since the suction unit of the spinning machine itself is not positioned or constructed or arranged to clean the filter chamber of the service carriage.